By Kat Procyk
Photography by Rayni Shiring/University of Pittsburgh
The 30th Annual School of Medicine Graduate Student Research Symposium celebrated the legacy, current achievements and future promise of student research in each of the school’s graduate programs.
An estimated 490 faculty members and students—a new record—attended the event on Oct. 1, 2025, at The Assembly to engage with the 177 posters and seven oral presentations that were selected for the symposium through peer review of submitted abstracts. Saleem Khan, associate dean for graduate studies and academic affairs and professor of microbiology and molecular genetics, School of Medicine, noted how much the symposium has grown since its inception.
“This evolved from a small, inaugural event to a major event with high-quality research and world-renowned keynote speakers,” Khan said.
This year's speaker, Steven L. Salzberg, Bloomberg Distinguished Professor of Computational Biology and Genomics, professor of biomedical engineering, School of Medicine, of computer science, Whiting School of Engineering, and of biostatistics, Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University (pictured above), discussed the evolution of gene annotation and the challenges in determining the number of genes in the human genome, and his lab’s Comprehensive Human Exon and Gene Set (CHESS), a comprehensive collection of human genes and exons derived from RNA sequencing experiments.
The Stephen L. Phillips Scientific Achievement Award was presented to Catherine Phelps from the microbiology and immunology graduate program, while Hanxi Xiao from the computational biology graduate program and Allison Case from the molecular genetics and developmental biology programs were runner-ups.
Daria Van Tyne, associate professor of medicine, School of Medicine, received the Distinguished Mentor of the Year award, while Thomas Hooven, assistant professor of pediatrics, and Jishnu Das, assistant professor of immunology and of computational and systems biology, both School of Medicine, were finalists.
Georgia Atkins from the molecular genetics and developmental biology graduate program received the Most Well-Rounded Student of the Year award. Runner-ups included Puja Halder from the biomedical sciences master’s program and Hye Mi Kim from the microbiology and immunology graduate program.
The symposium, hosted by the Biomedical Graduate Student Association, was a zero-food waste event that embraced Pitt’s sustainability policy, and concluded with a reception featuring live jazz, refreshments and networking among students, faculty and mentors.
